Interactive emails, segmentation, and AI are all email marketing trends that should be on all marketers’ radars.

In fact, more people are using email than ever before (close to 3.8 billion worldwide). Fronetics works with supply chain and logistics businesses every day, so we have a first-hand understanding of how email marketing can be successful in these industries.

That being said, it’s true that email is changing. Marketers need to be on top of these latest changes to keep pace and stay relevant. Here are 5 email marketing trends supply chain and logistics marketers should be ready for in 2018.

5 email marketing trends

1) Interactive emails

According to a recent survey by Litmus, more than 27% of marketers believe interactive emails make a big impact in email marketing. Making your emails engaging to read will reduce bounce rates and capture your target audience’s attention span for longer. A few ideas to make your content interactive: image galleries, sliders, buttons, quizzes, search bars, surveys, and, of course, an “Add to Cart” button.

2) List segmentation

If you’re not segmenting your email lists, you’re shortchanging your email marketing campaigns. MailChimp found that businesses who use list segmentation generate more than 14% more email opens and get 100.95% more clicks from email campaigns.

Effective email list segmentation is about collecting adequate data to create and target optimal email content based on audience preferences. A simple way to collect this type of data: email opt-in forms that collect more information than simply name and email.

3) Artificial intelligence

Artificial intelligence and machine-learning technologies will shape the future of email marketing. For example, Adobe has invested in AI-powered marketing, including features with the ability to suggest the best subject line for an email based on what it has learned about users. Machine learning can make email marketing easier, suggesting ways to segment email lists, send more personalized emails to key individuals, and generate product recommendations.

4) Plain-text emails

This one may seem counter-intuitive. While high-quality email design filled with images used to be a trend, marketers are increasingly finding that plain-text emails are more effective. This is largely because plain-text renders the same across all devices, and it has the added benefit of seeming more personal.

5) The rise of mobile-first

It’s not news that most emails are now opened on mobile devices. This means that it makes sense to start designing emails mobile-first. In addition, email subscription forms will start becoming more mobile-friendly, and content, such as articles and blog posts, should end with an email sign-up form to increase conversions.